BALTIMORE - By selecting Perry Kitchen with the No. 3 pick in the MLS draft Thursday, and subsequently adding teammate Chris Korb from NCAA champion Akron in the second round, D.C. United addressed conspicuous defensive and leadership issues.

Now, with the opening of training camp a week away and the season opener in two months, United will have to attend to its most glaring deficiency: scoring.

Club officials considered selecting an attacking player with its highest selection in seven years. But after the expansion Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers claimed U.S. under-20 national team striker Omar Salgado and Akron midfielder-forward Darlington Nagbe, respectively, "you can't pass up a Perry Kitchen," United General Manager Dave Kasper said.

"Could we have taken a forward? Absolutely, but [Kitchen] just has things a lot of players his age, and even older, don't have - leadership qualities, focus, and just a big-time winner."

Kitchen, 18, entered the draft after one season at Akron, which was responsible for five of the first eight players selected. He was projected to go in the first two picks, but late Wednesday, after club delegations arrived in Baltimore from the scouting combine in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., word began to circulate that he'd fallen to United.

While others, most notably Nagbe, are more dynamic, Kitchen is regarded as the most prepared to play professionally right away.

"If I had had the number one pick," United Coach Ben Olsen said, "I would have taken him. I can't tell you how happy we are to have this kid."

Undoubtedly, Olsen saw a little bit of himself in Kitchen, a tenacious ball-winner and organizer. Akron Coach Caleb Porter called Kitchen "a high-end role player, and in a soccer team, you have got to have those guys who do the dirty work. The intangibles are what make him so special. I see him being the captain someday."

First and foremost, United sees him as central defender, the position he has played for the U.S. under-20 national team, to partner with returning starter Dejan Jakovic. At Akron, he was a defensive midfielder, which, Porter said, enhanced his ball skills and decision-making.

"I'm a leader, I like to organize guys," said Kitchen, a native of Indianapolis. His favorite player is Manchester United central back Nemanja Vidic because he is "a hard-nosed leader who wins the ball - I love that."

Korb, a senior selected No. 31 overall, is an outside back who started on the left side for Akron. In the third round, United took Joe Willis, a 6-foot-5 senior goalkeeper from the University of Denver who will compete with two preseason invitees for the third slot on the depth chart.

"Our defense right now is where it's going to be," Olsen said. "We can focus on some other areas now. We're looking for that piece that we still need up top."